3.2 Software

ITGS students need a thorough understanding of the underlying information technology in everyday systems. This chapter covers the ITGS syllabus section 3.2 Software, with links to other areas including 3.3 Networks, 3.10 IT Systems in Organisations, and 1.1 Reliability. The book introduces the main types of software, including application software and operating systems. Students will learn the common types of software licence and be introduced to concepts such as cloud computing. Resources to support the textbook include:

Operating systems

Platforms

Common operating systems

Selecting and installing an operating system

Utility software

Disk fragmentation

Backups

Application software

Software licences

Open source versus closed source

Cloud computing

User interfaces

Getting help

Software reliability

Case Study: Therac-25

Computer accessibility for disabled users

Computer accessibility for disabled users is fundamentally tied to the equality of access social / ethical issue. The Disability and Access section of BBC Bitesize is a good introduction to this topic, covering appropriate input and output devices. Both Microsoft and Apple have sections on their web sites that detail the accessibility features in their hardware and software.

Finally, The Madtoe Strikes Again: Hands-free Graphic Design is an inspiring story of a young man who, despite having limited motor control, creates graphic designs. The page details the variety of hardware and software systems he uses to create his work.

The Education page contains details of hardware and software specifically designed for people with special educational needs.

Computer Fundamentals: Case Study

Bright Futures Academy Case Study. This case study lets student apply their knowledge of hardware, software, and networking concepts, with strong links to social and ethical issues and impacts. It is useful, if used with good supporting resources, when you have a class of students with very mixed IT background and existing knowledge.

Lesson resources: Revision Flashcards

Lesson resources: Keyword Bingo

Give students one or two cards containing ITGS key words, then read out the definitions. The first student to get all key words wins. This set of cards covers only key terms related to the Hardware and Software chapters of the book. Download: Student cards, teacher clues.

Updated: 2014-10-02

Exercise 3-1

Suggested rubric for this exercise, which asks students to create a presentation arguing for either FOSS or commercial software.

Exercise 3-2

Introduction to Computer Software

Computer Software in Plain English is a video from CommonCraft which offers a clear introduction to computer software. IGCSE ICT also has clear text and diagrams that are useful in teaching this topic. Both resources are very accessible to ITGS students with little or no prior IT knowledge.

Updated: 2014-10-02

Fragmentation game activity

"The Defragmentation Game" aims to help students understand disk fragmentation and defragmentation by using a set of cards. Each card is numbered (to represent the sectors used by a file when it is stored on disk) and is available in a variety of colours (to represent different files). The cards can be used by the teacher to explain the key concepts, or students can be asked to read about fragmentation and then explain what they have learnt using the cards.

ITGS students sometimes tend to focus on the 'no cost' (gratis) aspect of FOSS, ignoring the benefits of the 'free as in freedom' (libre) approach to software development. Why companies must adopt the open source way (BBC) does a good job of explaining these benefits.

Software licences and impact of piracy

Copyright infringement ('piracy') is a major issue for software companies. The BSA study includes many statistics about piracy worldwide.

Updated: 2014-10-02

Computer Reliability Exercise 1

The articles below cover different types of failure in computer controlled systems. A useful classroom task is to analyse these articles and consider how significant hardware failure, software failure, user failure, and corrupt data are in causing the problem.

RISKS and Risk Factor are two excellent resources frequently updated with reports of reliability and other ITGS related computing issues.

Updated: 2018-05-21

Computer Reliability Exercise 2

Research the following incidents. In each case, to what extent can the system software be blamed for causing the problem? What do these accidents tell us about the issue of software reliability?

Accidents involving the Airbus A320 aircraft, including Air Inter Flight ITF148 to Strasbourg in 1992 and Lufthansa Flight 2904 to Warsaw in 1993.

The accidental shootdown of Iran Air Flight 655 by the USS Vincennes in 1988.

Updated: 2014-10-02

Cars and software reliability

Modern cars contain numerous microprocessors and thousands of lines of computer code. Software reliability problems have their own section here because of their ubiquity and their potential to be extremely dangerous (although it must be said that most issues are not life-threatening).

A software bug in the US military's Patriot Missile system led to an inaccuracy that increased over time that ultimately led to the death of 28 US servicemen. The linked article gives a very clear explanation of how such a simple error can cause significant problems (the missile's timer was out by less than half a second - but when a missile is travelling at 1.7 km/s, that equates to over half a kilometre off-target).

RISKS digest is an excellent and very active mailing list of "risks", many (but not all) of which are related to failures in computer systems.

Updated: 2014-10-02

User interface practical lesson plans

These lessons are designed to help students understand the difference between graphical user interfaces, command line interfaces, and menu-driven interfaces, and where each might be used.

Command Line Interface lesson and associated files. This practical exercise gives students a chance to use the command line to manipulate a set of files, including moving and deleting files and using wildcards. The lesson includes a command line help sheet for the most common commands. This version of the lesson uses the Microsoft Windows command line.

Menu Driven Interfaces lesson In this practical lesson students will create a prototype menu driven interface for three scenarios, using the button and macro functions in Microsoft Excel.

User interfaces summary This sheet gives students a chance to reflect on what they have learnt about each type of user interface in different areas, including ease of use and flexibility.

Human-Computer Interaction

In the Metro Tragedy, Man Meets Machine is an interesting article from the Washington Post which describes the problems of human-computer interactions in potentially dangerous situations, tying in to the People and Machines social / ethical issue in ITGS. It ties in nicely with the resources on computer reliability and the user interfaces lesson plans above.

However, with Google being notorious for scrapping applications and projects mercilessly, this Guardian article notes that Google's projects have an average life-expectancy of 4 years and asks whether it is a good idea to rely on free cloud infrastructure for business or personal use.

Lesson resources: Starter Crossword

Lesson resources: Banned words game

Banned words game - This game is similar to 'Taboo' or 'Forbidden Words'. Each card contains an ITGS key software term which students must explain to the class without mentioning the 'taboo' words listed on the card. The aim is to improve students' ability to explain key ITGS language and have a little bit of fun. Works well as a starter with the class split into two teams. I find printing the cards on coloured paper and laminating them works best.

Revolution OS

This documentary traces the origins of the Linux operating systems and the Free Software movement. It is useful for helping students understand some of the key differences between FOSS and commercial software, as well as highlighting just how extensively open source projects are used (for example, the Apache web server). The documentary relies heavily on interviews however, and showing segments of the film is probably the best approach.

Updated: 2014-11-07

Banned Words: ITGS Key word game

This is a PowerPoint version of the Banned Words game featured elsewhere on this page. This saves a lot of printing, cutting, and laminating of paper cards.

The gameplay is simple: students must try to explain the ITGS key word to their team without saying any of the forbidden words at the bottom of the page. Teams take turns and have a minute to explain as many ITGS terms as possible. The activity is designed to help improve students’ skills and description, definition, and explanation.

The slides can be viewed online at SlideShare, or you can download them from there as a PowerPoint file. If you download the presentation you can make use of the button which takes you to a random term each time and stops when all terms have been used (this is achieved using VBA code, so Office may give you a security warning).

Updated: 2015-10-28

Examples of FOSS in Use

ITGS students sometimes mistakenly believe FOSS is 'trial' or 'simple' software, or that it lacks features compared to commercial software. The examples below highlight where FOSS in used in the 'real world' and where the advantages and challenges are found, and should help ITGS students understand that very large organisations do make extensive use of free and open source software.
50 places running Linux is a good place to start, with some perhaps unexpected examples.

FOSS in Healthcare

NHS to embrace open source explains the benefits the UK's National Health Service hopes to derive from switching to open solutions.

Updated: 2017-05-03

Misconceptions about FOSS

There are a few common misconceptions about FOSS. Students sometimes believe it is always free (zero cost), or that it is trial software rather than full versions. There can also be misunderstanding surrounding source code and how its availability might affect system security.
A common FOSS misconception and Another FOSS misconception try to address these issues.

Updated: 2017-05-03

Hardware and Software review activity

This short review or revision activity is designed to help students distinguish between the different types of computer hardware (input, output, processing, and storage) and software (operating systems and application software). These core topics are often tested in exams, so a clear understanding is essential. You can download the activity and the solution.

Updated: 2018-05-21

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ITGS Textbook

Information Technology in a Global Society is a textbook for the IB Diploma ITGS course, by Stuart Gray. This site contains resources for ITGS teachers and students,
including a sample chapter, exercises, lesson ideas, and further reading.